Count Basie & His Kansas City Five & Seven - 12" Mercury Album A-39 (Originally on Keynote) (1944)

Made a rare mid-week record shop stop today and was able to have first pick on a box of 12" 78 albums. Every single one was classical (not into those but I have countless sets in my garage) but there was one lone jazz album which seemed sorely out of place.

The liner notes, by John Hammond, explain how these four sides were originally released as singles on the Keynote label (1302 & 1303) but for the first time, Mercury had gathered and released them in one set. He even wrote how Mercury had pressed these using new plates. (If you look closely at the photo below of 6 Cats And A Prince you can see the Keynote label underneath the Mercury one...hmm.)

Buck Clayton t / Dickie Wells tb / Lester Young ts / Count Basie p / Freddy Green g / Rodney Richardson sb / Jo Jones d.

Recorded in New York on March 22, 1944.